Is it time for OUSD’s unusual budgeting system to become policy? - The Education Report - Katy Murphy's blog on Oakland schools

Is it time for OUSD’s unusual budgeting system to become policy? - The Education Report - Katy Murphy's blog on Oakland schools:

Is it time for OUSD’s unusual budgeting system to become policy?

By Katy Murphy
Thursday, December 8th, 2011 at 9:49 am in budget.

To those who don’t work at schools or compulsively follow education policy, the finer points of school budgeting and resource allocation might sound like painfully dry reading material. But the issue evokes passionate debate in Oakland Unified, which does things differently than most districts.

In other districts, it’s common practice for top administrators to determine the number of teachers and kinds of electives and programs for each school. In Oakland, those decisions are (at least, in theory) made at the school-level through OUSD’s unconventional budgeting system (Results-Based Budgeting, or RBB).

RBB has been in place since 2004, but its principles — including the autonomy